Drosophyllum, RO unit, Superthrive

Demetrio Lamzaki (Dee_Lamzaki@msn.com)
Fri, 26 Apr 96 01:18:50 UT

GW>The average height of all the plants I saw was about
GW>8-10cm, the tallest one being maybe 20cm. I surely
GW>didn't see any of those 1.2m high ones you read about
GW>in the CP books.

That beats the height of my Drosophyllum, it's about an inch tall and
only has three leaves! My seedling started coming up last Friday, I'm
impressed by the thickness of the stem in comparison to the size of the
seed when it first erupted on the surface, it's twice as wide as I
expected, it must really swell up after leaving the seed coat. The
growth rate is rapid, it has several newly forming leaves in the coiled
phase at its center. The little fellow has already caught a fungus
gnat, seems they learn fast! :-)

I set up my RO unit today and started producing water. After testing
the resulting water, it turned out to be identical to the test results I
get from bottled distilled water, it really does the job. Looks like my
water problems are solved, thanks again to everyone here who helped me
find a solution.

Lastly, a word about a long running topic of conversation on this list,
Superthrive. Here's my personal anecdote about the product. I never
used it, or even thought about using it. I read with interest the
message threads, some from several years ago, in the CP archive. The
experiences sounded impressive, but they weren't quite enough to make me
rush out and get some. A month and a half ago I went into a
neighborhood plant shop and saw a Superthrive display. I immediately
thought about this list, said what the heck why not, and bought a
bottle. Some background information is important at this point: 6 years
ago I received a beautiful sago palm as a gift. It was a pretty large
plant, the trunk was the width of two big pineapples and as tall as one
(just the body of a pineapple, not including leaves). Since sago palms
grow extremely slowly this one was very old. It adapted well to life
indoors and everything seemed fine.

Last June something happened that strikes fear into the hearts of every cycad
owner, the dark green fronds started to lighten, not only on the oldest and
lowest fronds which is normal, but on every frond on the plant starting with
the leaflets. The color change went all the way down the fronds, they went
from dark green, to light green, to straw yellow. Within two months every
frond was dead. I continued to water it out of habit for a couple of months
but then gave up on it. I thought of throwing it out and using the space for
something else but never got around to it, it just stayed in its corner as a
sort of dry museum piece.

When I came back from the shop with the Superthrive I tried to think of
something safe I could experiment with it on, I didn't know what this
stuff would do and I didn't want to kill any plants. That's when I
thought of using it on the sago palm, not a very fair test case at all
now that I look back on it. I didn't follow the instructions on the
package, so much for objective testing! I bent the bottle of
Superthrive over a container of a half gallon of water two times,
causing two short streams of the liquid to fall into the water. Boy
this stuff has a pungent smell! I mixed it well and poured it over the
soil of the sago palm, and poured it over the trunk, saturating it. The
soil was rock hard at the time, it hadn't been watered since September.
I even let a few drops of the pure liquid fall on the trunk as well. I
really didn't expect anything to happen. I didn't water the plant or
touch it in any way after that one Superthrive treatment, 1 1/2 months
ago. Last night I saw something that truly astonished me, silvery-green
fingers are coming from the top of my sago palm's crown, it's putting up
a new frond! I really thought the thing was dead. I watered it today
and I'm still in awe by the whole miraculous event, either it's a case
of amazing coincidence, or this stuff actually works. I won't argue the
point either way, just wanted to share my experience with you.

Regards,

Demetrios